(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a method of storing character patterns and a system for utilizing the character patterns, and in particular to a character utilization system holding therein several types of character patterns differing in size or in style from one another for editing or printing a document with fine characters as well as to a character pattern storing method suitable for such system.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
"Word processor" has long been enumerated as a fundamental office-automation apparatus. In recent years, attention has been given to a new document processing system called "interoffice printing system" or "desktop publishing system." As to such system, see, for example, "Nikkei Computer", published by Nikkei McGraw-Hill, pp. 147-152, Aug. 18, 1986.
The major feature of such document creating system is its ability of printing, with a high resolution, in a number of character patterns of a greatly increased number of sizes and styles as compared to prior art word processors in which the available sizes or styles of the character patterns are limited to one or so in number.
To implement this kind of system, however, there is a problem of how to hold various character patterns. That is, high resolution character patterns are required for a high resolution printer; and, to hold thousands or more character patterns for each size and style, a file of great capacity is required For example, where a laser printer having a linear density of 16 lines/mm is to be used, approximately a 3M byte storage capacity is required to hold seven thousand characters (JIS first and second levels) of 10 points (3 mm .times. 3 mm). Thus, to hold those characters in each of five different sizes and two different styles, Ming and Gothic, a storage capacity of about 30M bytes is required. To hold character patterns of about 40 points, if only in a single style, a storage capacity of more than 40M bytes is required.
In prior art systems, as described in the above-noted publication, the character patterns are usually stored in a storage device such as a magnetic disk, and there is a problem in that a large capacity storage device is required to be devoted to the character patterns.